February Spring

Ed and I were outside a great deal this weekend. Not to shovel snow.

Stories and pictures of the never-ending snowstorms and brutal cold in the eastern part of the country seem surreal. It’s hard to wrap my mind around snow banks higher than my head and minus zero temperatures. Yesterday Ed shoveled compost from the two year old mound onto the raised beds.

I hauled bits of branches strewn around the yard from last Monday’s windstorm to the burn pile. While raking in the back corner I spied these delicate beauties. The Daphne bushes which we planted last fall are beginning to bloom.

Who could resist bringing a few of these tiny flowers with their big fragrance into their house?The ladder was used to prune the perimeter branches of the apple tree then I climbed up into the tree to get to the upper center branches. Good fun and exercise.

While Ed finished working in the back yard I made an apple pie to celebrate Valentine’s Day and as soon as it was in the oven we went for our first ride on the tandem bicycle we bought a week ago.

Ed’s been wanting a tandem bike for forty years and has been keeping a watch on Craigslist. When he saw this old Schwinn, the exact same color as the Schwinn he rode around Oregon on – with a 75 pound backpack (he was 18), he fell hard. Isn’t it a beauty? (Picture taken last Sunday but he was too sick to try to ride it.)

After church today we took our bikes to the Willamette Mission State Park. (I wanted to take Dually but Ed wants more practice before taking it for a longer ride.)

Yes, these are pictures from today! Note the very green grass and the unfurling leaves. (Our yard needs mowing already but it was still too wet yesterday.) Almost to the far end of the biggest loop we encountered this body of water stretching across the bike path.

Hmmm, hard to tell how deep it is…
Nope, not going to try.

We retraced the path to the first fork where a young couple were soaking up the warmth.

Signs of spring are everywhere!

This path ended up looping us around to a horse path leading down to the Willamette River. Nothing like a bit of dirt biking. The bottom part was very soggy and slick. Just after I snapped this picture Ed headed right and skirted along the hillside just above that little tree. A small adventure off the beaten path.

The bridle path soon circled back to the bike path and soon we were staring at the puddle of water we’d turned back from earlier. Except, now we were on the south end of it. Rather than take the longer way back around we decided to be daring.

Once Ed was safely across he called back that the water had gotten above the pedals through the deepest stretch. What’s some wet shoes on a fine warm day? Especially with good wool socks on? Come to think of it, I’m still wearing the same shoes and socks! Gotta check… yep they’re still damp. Amazing how warm wet wool is.

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Author: Wanda J

I never dreamed my life would be entangled with fiber and the tools used to produce fibery items. When I bought a boat shuttle Ed looked at it, decided to make a better one and the rest is history. For a decade he made shuttles, crochet hooks, knitting needles, until his spindles became so popular that he had to devote his time to making them, as well as Great Wheels.
Free time is spent reading, trying to coax food from the ground, and playing in the creek near our place. I love long walks and camping far from crowds. Playing my fiddle beside a stream or with good friends brings sweetness to my soul.
Sundays we try to set aside for worshiping God with our small Quaker meeting.
View all posts by Wanda J

Thank you, Wanda, for sharing this lovely day and those beautiful pictures! They warm my soul, and that feels really good, as we are in the middle of a few days (too many!) of extreme cold, with temps well under zero going down to minus thirty with the windchill… Seeing that spring is well on its way somewhere makes me feel hopeful that it’ll come back here too, hopefully sooner than later!
Have a marvelous week!

What a beautiful day it was!
We still have a tandem; we used to have two. Each parent would captain with a kid. But we never rode much with each other; I think I’m too bossy to be the stoker, and too short to be the captain on the big bike!